The Resisty Wars
by SilverThorn-2000
Summary: Circumstances for Dib and the Earth istelf to help fight a war nobody wants.
1. Slow Moving DOOM

The Resisty Wars

Silverthorn-2000

1- Slow Moving DOOM

Space unfurled itself before the kilometer-long warship _Defiance_.

_Defiance_ was top-of-the-line high technology, the best her builders could make her.

_Defiance_ was also _Resisty_-built. The technology it was made from was out-of-date, substandard. It showed, with a low top speed and poor combat capability. It would never be able to take to its mission of destroying the Irken flagship, the _Massive._

But that, of course, didn't mean that it couldn't harass the Irken Armada, or it's always streatched supply lines.

"Jump complete, sir." Lard Nar looked up from the display in front of him to the seated figure at the middle of the _Defiance_'s bridge.

"And the Force Units?" came the mechanically synthized voice.

"Intact, this time." The Vort looked directly at the Irken cyborg, who raised his antennae in satisfaction.

"Excellent. Someone find Spleenk and explain to him that the field settings for the stardrive are _not _a toy. And then have them find my brother." Black leaned back in his chair as one of the various aliens on the bridge scrambled to carry out the order.

"We made it home." Lard looked at Black, who's eyes eased into what most had learned as a sort of relaxed merriment.

"Indeed we did, my friend. But this constant hit-and-run isn't something the Resisty can keep up. Even with the help of the defectives and the disaffected of the lower castes, we can't win." Black's eyes hardened."We need an ally, and my unassuming, ignorant youngest brother may have unwittingly found us one."

Lard Nar attempted, with little success, to follow all the large, formal words that Black used. Reviving him after Red and Purple had killed him (near miss with an explosive) hadn't been a problem. It was dealing with the Irken they'd chosen to revive.

Black had been an advisor to the late Miyuki and Spork, a chancellor of sorts. Instead of simply sending him into exile as they had his younger brothers, Red and Purple had simply killed him outright. The idea had been to create a propaganda tool. They had, instead, created a new leader for the Resisty. Lard himself had initially been aghast at the turn of events, but found the cybered Irken friendly to him.

"I...beg your pardon, sir?" Lard Nar asked, yanking his mind back to the present.

"Did it again, didn't I?" Black let out a soft laugh. "Zim has found us an ally. He just doesn't know it yet."

"Or that he has any sort of family." Lard looked over the display as the sound of metal scraping metal was heard. "I do wish they could take it a little easier when they dock..."

"Makes two of us." Black spun the chair around, the servos connecting it to the ceiling straining at the task.

"You called?" said the newcomer, another Irken, as the bridge hatch closed behind him.

"Visse, yes," Black said, pronouncing the name "Vis". "I do at that. You are to travel to a world called Earth, and forge an alliance with the native sapients there."

"Native...sapients?" Visse asked, blue eyes narrowing.

"Yes. If we are to stop Red and Purple, we need help. These 'Humans' may be our best hope." Black turned back to the central holotank. Visse stared after his older brother, turned, and strode off the bridge.

* * *

"_This situation is unacceptable."_

Red and Purple winced at the control brain's thunderous proclamation. They put up with the machines simply because they were the accured experience of nintey-nine percent of the Irken race. They simply didn't have to like it's occasional wild mood swing, or it's habit of declaring the obvious.

"So what do we do about it?" Red asked after his ears finished ringing.

"_Cease Operation Impending Doom 2 to hunt these rebels down."_

Red lowered his head in frustration, his two fingers rubbing his forehead and the beginnings of the massive headache he felt coming on. "But that's exactly what THEY WANT US TO DO!"

There was a pause as the machine processed that statement.

"_Analysis indicates they will need to seek allies."_

"Duh!" Purple piped up, only to be slapped into silence by Red.

"_Further analysis indicates that the Food Services Drone known as Zim may have found such a race."_

Red's headache blossomed into a full migrane. "Those...Earth...thingies?"

"_Affirmative."_

"Great. We'll split the armada. Half will finish carrying out operations in this sector. The _Massive_ and the other half will begin operations to strike at Earth." Red turned and left, Purple following close on his heels.

"So, does this mean we're gonna re-encode Zim as an Invader?" Purple asked. Red didn't bother to turn around.

"No." The crimson garbed Tallest growled, trying his hardest not to completely loose his temper. "We'll blow him up with everyone else."

* * *

Many, many, many parsecs away, in a small star system its inhabitants lovingly referred to as Sol, a young Irken girl sat, brooding, as her escape pod continued to fall in a rapidly decaying orbit.

"Zim..." Tak muttered vengfully, "I will get you."

* * *

On Earth itself, Dib looked up, watching Tak's escape pod. She was there. Once and for all, he'd be proven right! Irrefutable proof of alien existence! His father would be forced to-

His thoughts cut off as he noticed the fact he was slowly sliding off the roof, headed for the yard below. "Why me?" he asked the air as the loose shingles came free, sending him sailing off the roof's edge and into the evergreens beneath.

He'd spend the next several hours putting bandages on the various cuts, completely missing the Tallest's orders to destroy his world.

* * *

Zim, on the other hand, didn't. He spent several fruitless hours trying to contact them.

* * *

The Resisty didn't either. Visse launched, going off half-prepared for a long trip.

* * *

Humanity at large, how-some-ever, remained blissfully unaware of the creeping doom that was heading in its general direction. 


	2. Open the Breach

2- Open the breach

Stars wheeled around the small scout Visse had commandeered for this particular mission. His stomach wheeled even faster. For a moment, he briefly wondered why Black had chosen him for this moment. His brother knew he hated jump travel.

He stopped thinking as he raised the barf bag to his mouth. Briefly, he wondered if he was actually going to get sick. He was. Exorcist sick.

After wiping his mouth and depositing everything into the conviently placed trash burner, he looked around him. "Another day, another jump. At least we had the coordinates right."

With that, he set up for the second jump. In a matter of moments, the artifical wormhole had engulfed the small vessel.

* * *

There was an object that fell into the park that night. This in and of itself wasn't odd. The UFO freaks who'd adopted the place as "holy ground" after one of Zim's more spectacular crashes was always having human-built attempts at starships crash in it.

This particular object wasn't human. It was an Irken-built escape pod from a customized Spittle Runner that had run into a particularly bad streak of luck. With a growl, Tak forced the cover open. She hated, just _hated_ small spaces like that.

She supposed it all went back to being stuck in a small testing chamber after Zim had knocked out half the planetary energy grid. (She had, however, learned that Zim had a knack for doing that. He'd done it twice on Irk.)

She took a deep breath and activated her thermoptic camoflauge. No sense in letting the humans see her. Casting a glance at the escape pod and her dismembered SIR unit, she sighed. "No ship, no Mimi, nothing. Ugh, curse you, Zim..."

She headed for the remains of the giant weenie stand that had been the centerpiece of her plot to offer Earth to the Almighty Tallest. Hopefully, there'd be something worth salvaging there.

* * *

Dib looked in the mirror for a long moment. He wasn't as akward now, at fourteen. The last few years had seen his body _mostly_ catch up with his head (though it remained somewhat larger and a sore spot where comments were concerned). He smiled, then turned as the door to the bathroom shook.

"_Dib, if you don't get out of there now, you will suffer greatly."_

If ever there was a better prompt to go finish getting ready for school, that was it. Gaz didn't joke around, and she held to her morning schedule as greatly as she held to her games. Dib fled the bathroom, grabbing his black jacket off the hook on his way.

Gaz glared at him, and Dib slunk away, hoping she wouldn't decide to make an issue of it. She didn't, and Dib sunk gratefully into the chair at the kitchen table.

"Good morning, son and daughter!" came the normal recorded message. "Remember to pay your bus fare, feed the dog-" there was a noise like a record scratching here- "NOOOO! THE PRESSURE IS ALL WRONG!"

Dib stared in horrified fascination as his dad's recording was promptly spliced with a half-dozen security tapes from the Membrane Lab Facility his father worked at (Each and every one of them a horrible accident of some sort). "Man, either dad's gotten lazy, or he needs to fix this thing."

Gaz wandered in, poured herself a bowl of Count Cocofang cereal (Dib still couldn't bring himself to touch the stuff), and sat, watching the looped recording. "Huh. Think dad's working on a sense of humor?"

"I guess so..." Dib trailed off and munched sourly on the piece of toast in his hand.

* * *

"But there's still more WAFFLES!"

Zim forced himself not to scream as Gir tried to serve him another heaping plateful of waffles. "No, Gir. I cannot eat more of your dis-" He cut off as the little robot stared at him. "Your delicious waffles. The Tallest are coming. They intend to rob ZIM of his victory! Why? What have I done wrong?"

"You stole their ship!" Gir said, and promptly began to list everything Zim had ever done to upset the current Almighty Tallest and, by extension, the Irken race as a whole.

"All right, I get it, Gir, that's enough. No need to dwell on failure." Zim paced for a moment, ignoring the small robot waving the plate of waffles at him. The Tallest wouldn't destroy him with the miserable dregs of humanity, would they?

His thoughts scattered as he tripped over Gir, sending himself sprawling, and covering the kitchen in waffles, butter, and suryp.

"GIR! Clean this mess up! I must get ready for-" Zim shuddered at the mention of it. "Skool."

* * *

The bell rang, and the class settled. Zim was, by far, still smaller than most everyone else at the Junior High Skool he attended now. He'd grown some, yes, but he was still short.

"What's the matter, Zim? Your latest plan not even make it out of the front door?"

Zim whirled around. "_Dib._"

Gaz rolled her eyes and tried to concentrate on the game she was playing.

"No, Dib, I have, ah..._other_ concerns. Concerns that do not concern your miserable Stunticon brain."

Dib's expression sank. Zim had learned a lot of things, but human popular culture wasn't one of them.

"Whatever, Zim."

"Yes, Dib, you'll 'whatever', when the massive arrives!"

"Say what, now?" Dib looked at the short Irken like he'd lost his mind.

"Yeah, the Tallest are coming to obliterate the planet and us along with-" Zim blinked as he remembered exactly who he was talking to. "Oh, you won't get any more than that! Not from ZIM!"

The alien ran down the hallway, throwing various people to the floor in an attempt to disuade Dib's non-existant presuit.

"The Tallest are coming..._here?_"

That was the last thing he asked before Gaz decked him for breaking her concentration.

* * *

Just the computer.

Several tens of thousands of tons of equipment, and only a secondary computer was left. Everything else was a metallic, melted mess.

"Locate...ship." Tak muttered as she typed. The screen came alive, flickered, showed a location. Tak memorized it, even as the computer died for the final time. "Once I have that, I can start over."

* * *

The Resisty scout ship came out of jump into the inner Sol system and promptly died. Visse slammed his fist into the overhead console, bringing the small craft back to life.

"Stupid miserable piece of..." Visse let out an exaggerated sigh and went back to reading the intelligence briefing.

"First stop...Well, I guess it's this Professor Membrane fellow. He seems to be well connected." He set the course on the autopilot.

His bigger concern, though, was Zim. Genetically, the little runt was his brother- at least as much his brother as Black was. And Zim's somewhat enthusiastically violent approach to dealing with things could cause problems for a diplomatic mission such as this.

_Especially_ for a diplomatic mission such as this. He and Black were both renegades, after all.

He shifted uneasily. The lack of weight on his back bothered him, but he'd been fine with having his pak and lifetimer removed on Jackson's Whole. After all, it was one planet where enough credit of any sort would get you what you wanted.

And what he'd wanted at the time was not to be tracked by his pak's constantly broadcasting beacon. So the pack and its life support systems had gone, and in had come the biotech organs, and what few cybernetic enhancements he'd cared to get.

He quit ruminating on the past as the scout ship shuddered. He realized he was going faster than he'd intended. He realized how much when he saw just how big Earth was getting in the windshield.

"Oh, this is gonna get pretty interesting..."

* * *

Dib sat, tweaking the small micro-fusion reactor in his salvaged alien ship. One of these days he'd promised himself a tour of the local galaxy, but that'd have to wait until he got the FTL drive up and running.

"Step away from that ship."

It was a voice he hadn't heard in several years. He turned slowly, staring down an Irken girl, her pak's weapon arms extended and glowing threateningly.

"Tak?" He asked weakly. He stared at her, deep into her purple eyes.

"Dib. Get away from my ship." She stepped forward, and Dib shift to the left against the cold alien hull beneath his back.

"Tak, I'm sure we can discuss-"

"There will be no talking." She fired, and Dib dove for cover, rolling under the craft. Tak leaped, landing gracefully on the ship's curved hull. "You'll give me back my ship, and I'll take your planet."

Dib reached blindly, groping for something, anything to try and stop Tak. His hand wrapped around a monkey wrench, and in a single, smooth motion threw it. The purple-clad Irken vaulted over it, landing on the garage floor without a sound. She placed one boot on Dib's chest.

"You're a fool, Dib." Dib winced, watching the arms charge for another shot. Suddenly, the glaring light died, and he watched Tak visibly stiffen.

"I'm think you might wanna stow those. Now."


	3. Bring the Noise, Part I

3- Bring The Noise, Part I

Tak turned around slowly, to see the form of a large Irken, clad in what looked to be makeshift combat armor. That was the first thing she noticed.

The second was the barrel of the energy pistol he had steadily aimed at her head. With a snap, she withdrew the weapon arms of her pak.

"Good."

No sooner had he said the word than Tak flipped herself over backwards, her right foot knocking the gun away. The other Irken snarled a curse and rushed her, throwing several blows. Tak evaded them all, flipped into her ship, and started the engines with a roar.

"_No!"_ The cry came from Dib, who'd managed to get to his knees during the brief moment of chaos.

"It all sounded so simple. Why can't it be simple?"

Dib glanced at his savior. "Who-"

"Visse. My name is Visse. Anything else is going to have to wait." Visse charged out the door, blue eyes narrowed, tracking Tak's movements against the backdrop of stars.

Dib followed, then glanced around. His eyes finally settled on Visse's small scout ship. It was still popping from the heat of re-entry, and banged up from a rough landing. "Does your ship still fly?"

"Yeah, it should. Good idea." Visse opened the hatch and leapt in, and Dib jumped in. Both of them blinked as Gaz stepped in gingerly.

Dib started to ask the obvious, but thought better of it. "Let's get after her Visse."

Visse slapped controls, and with a shudder, the craft rose into air. "Oughta be fun."

The ship tore into the air, and the chase was on.

* * *

Zim nudged the Voot cruiser along, trying carefully not to be seen. It had surprised him to see Tak's ship tearing through the sky, bound for the business district. So he'd taken it upon himself to follow Dib (at least, he thought it was Dib) to see exactly what was going on.

What was going on, it looked like, was a high-speed aerial chase in and around the skyscrapers of the downtown area.

"GIR! Where are my weapons?" Zim demanded, targeting what looked to be the ship of another alien species in front of him.

"I fixed it with a hot dog!" Gir replied happily. Zim tore open the panel to find that, sure enough, Gir had stuffed an entire weenie- bun and condiments included- into the weapon panel. With a growl, Zim tore the offending food free and slapped the cover closed. With a pulsed whine, the guns fired.

* * *

"There's somebody behind us."

Visse's eyes flicked down at the sensors as Gaz's voice carried to him. "Looks like my brother's decided to come play."

"Brother...? Zim? Zim is your brother?" Dib asked increduosly.

"Well, half-brother if you wanna split hairs." Visse's hands manipulated the controls with an expert touch. "You know that ship he pilots? The Voot Cruiser?"

"Yeah." Dib knew it fairly well.

"Ever wonder why he's the only one who pilots that kind of ship?"

"Not really." Dib kept his eyes on the sensors as a pair of particle bolts narrowly missed the scout ship. It was a good question, though. From the data he'd stolen from Zim, it looked like the Irken Empire didn't use the Voot. "Why?" he asked finally.

"'Cause it's too fragile for anyone else. Falls apart if you sneeze the wrong way." Visse's hands grabbed the control yoke. "Hang on to something."

* * *

Zim growled and fired off another round when the ship in front of him spread the rear panels open. Before he knew what had happened, the ship had slipped up and over him, falling in behind him.

"Wha-"

* * *

"Nice." Gaz commented, a trace of admiration coloring her voice.

Visse smirked, his finger tightening on the trigger built into the yoke.

* * *

Tak spared a brief look behind her, and felt her jaw drop as the scout behind her jinked behind a third vessel she immediately recognized as Zim's Voot Cruiser, which had it's engine pods removed by a burst of scattergun fire.

Her eyes flicked forward in time to see the girder looming in front of her. She pulled up, hearing her voice screaming in the small space around her.

* * *

"_Gorramit_!" Visse yanked the scout into a hover, watching Tak's small craft slam into the girder, sending the cockpit module tumbling into the depths of the construction.

"Great. We'll have to go in." Visse picked up a second blaster pistol, handing it to Dib. He turned to Gaz.

"You coming with, or you wanna take the controls?" he asked. Gaz raised her eyebrows.

* * *

"Just don't ding it up any more than it already is!" Visse called over the whine of the engines.

Dib watched as Gaz shut the hatch and took off at full speed. "Are you sure that was a good idea?"

Visse shrugged, then headed carefully along the construction as the sun set in the distance. Dib stood for a long moment, feeling the weight of the weapon in his hand. He sighed, and followed Visse.

"So, Visse, why are you here?" Dib asked as the two tried to find Tak.

"I'm here to see if I can't get humanity to join the cause of the Resisty." Visse replied somewhat tersely.

Dib blinked. "The Resisty?"

"Group of various aliens and disaffected or defective Irkens fighting against the Irken Empire and it's plans for universal conquest."

Dib nodded, looking around carefully. He remembered Zim mentioning Tak's cloaking field. "Ah, Tak- the Irken we're chasing- has a cloaking field."

Visse stopped for a moment. "Thanks for the warning."

There was a whine, and Visse dropped. Dib followed suit, and was immediately thankful he had. A massive surge of energy washed through where the upper half of his body had been instants earlier.

The duo looked up in time to watch Tak cloak herself again.

"Agile little minx, isn't she?" Visse asked. Dib snatched up a bucket of waste water that was near his hand, and threw it where Tak had been standing. His aim was true, water falling around Tak. With a sizzle and surge of blue lightning, Tak's cloaking field shorted out.

"Just like the movies," Dib said, letting himself trip on the moment before he remembered he could be killed. He raised the pistol and fired. Tak dodged, running down a nearby girder while the blaster bolt scorched metal plating further down.

Visse took off after her, moving at a somewhat slower pace. Dib again followed, watching Tak head out to a girder that bordered on open space.

With a scowl, Tak extended her weapon arms, turned, and leapt. Dib heard the sound of Tak's energy beams go to continuous fire.

"_No! Idiot!"_ Visse cried, watching Tak's descent. "It's too high up! You can't shed enough velocity!"

Dib's eyes widened as he looked over the edge. Tears filled his eyes. Far on the sidewalk below, Tak was little more than a broken scarecrow.

"No..."

He never heard Visse call Gaz back to pick them up.

* * *

Dib sat quietly as they headed back to his place. He'd never wanted to hurt Tak. She'd been his friend, once.

"There has to be something we can do."

Visse was silent for a long moment. "Her pak has her memories, and it doesn't look like her brain would've taken damage. We can keep her on ice in the cryolocker until we can get to someplace capable of cloning Irken tissue. Then it's just a matter of having an autodoc transfer the brain and pak to a new body."

"What about that cloning tube Dad has down in his lab?" Gaz asked.

"I don't think it could handle Irken tissue." Visse stated calmly.

Dib blinked. Maybe, just maybe there was a way.

"Yeah, but her pak has the data about her human disguise." Dib said.

Visse looked at him as though he'd gone nuts. Dib hated it when people looked at him like that. "You mean put her mind and pak into a human body?"

"Yeah. My dad's a genius. A simple brain transplant shouldn't be a problem, I mean, we can grow the clone without one naturally, and-"

Visse held up his hand. "I suppose it's worth a try."

* * *

"Hey, Dad? I need your help with something."

Professor Membrane looked at his son. "Oh, son! You've finally seen the light of real science!"

Dib winced. "Sort of. Look, it's like this..."

* * *

Tak opened her eyes.

She didn't recognize her surroundings. "What...how..."

"You made a poor choice trying to jump from the height you were at." She glanced to her right at the Irken who'd shown up during the fight.

"So, we decided to put you into a new body," he continued, as she groggily moved herself up. "Thing is, the nearest cloning facility for _Irkens_ is over ninety-five parsecs away."

"For Irkens...?" She asked, shaking her head to clear it. Stopped, something felt wrong.

"We, ah, used my Dad's lab and, well...made you a human body," Dib admitted from her left. She whirled, faced him for a moment, then looked carefully at her reflection in the insturment tray next to the bed.

A human face- that of her human disguise, aged to be closer to Dib's natural age she thought.

"What...Dib, what have you..."

"I wanted to help. I mean, until Visse showed up, you were pretty much the only friend I had." Dib admitted, lowering his head.

Tak reached out, fingers brushing his jacket lightly. "It's...not what I expected, but...thank you."


	4. New Tensile Strength

4- New Tensile Strength

Tak strode down the street, over the walkway on the bridge. Rain flicked off the poncho she worse, and cars drove by, lights glaring in the dim light.

_All of it holographic of course,_ she mused silently, _made for that irritant daughter of his, but it suits my purposes well._

Three days had passed since Tak had been given her new body, her new chance at life. It still didn't feel right, but the constant training she'd put herself through helped. Three days of hologrammatic simulation, of honing every muscle to a sharpened edge.

This was the penultimate test. Her last go before she could set her sights on the future.

She broke into a sprint, kicking on the cloaking field once more. With a sharp double click, she attached the line hanging from her belt to the nearest support strut and leapt the guard rail. She felt the wind whistle through her hair.

_Ten seconds._

The line snapped taut, and she flipped herself out of the dive and to her feet. Her hand pulled the release.

_Fifteen seconds._

She hit the deck of the tanker with a slam. The puddle underneath her feet splashed up, shutting her cloak off. The guard nearest her turned, moved to bring his weapon up.

_Twenty seconds._

She shot forward, hands out, gaining purchase on the man's hands. She yanked him forward, rolling to her back, her feet coming up and propelling the man overboard.

_Twenty-five seconds._

The second guard moved in. Tak kipupped to her feet, lunged forward and shoved the gun's aim away. The heel of her palm slammed into his stomach, doubling him over. Yanking the gun free, her leg lashed out in a vicious kick. The guard sprawled to his back and didn't move.

_Thirty seconds._

"Computer, end simulation." The tanker, open sky, and storm all wavered and vanished, mirages that had never been. The room was a dull battleship grey.

Tak never paid that any mind, though. She popped open the doors and strode up the stairs.

* * *

She arrived in the kitchen to the usual morning noises: Gaz's GameSlave 3, the ongoing debate between Visse and the Professor about the Resisty's need for allies, and Dib turning the pages on one of his conspiracy scream sheets.

Without missing a beat, the boy raised a plate of eggs and bacon. It didn't look particularly appetizing, but Tak took it gratefully and sank into the chair next to him.

"How's the training?" he asked, and Tak blinked.

"Who said I was training?" Tak asked, tearing off a piece of bacon and nibbling at it gently.

"What else would you have been doing?" Dib asked, looking up from his magazine. Tak sighed.

"You know I never really cared for you, right?"

Dib shrugged and went back to his magazine with a muttered "Tryin' to be friendly is all."

Tak forced herself not to grind her teeth. "It...goes well. I've gotten back to where I used to be."

"Good." Dib said nothing else, and for a moment they ate in relative silence. Right up until Visse and Membrane's argument was brought into the kitchen for seconds on coffee.

"I just don't see why a starfaring race would choose the middle of a war to show up, is all," Membrane was saying.

"It's a matter of relative distance to the nearest starfaring species," Visse countered firmly. "I mean, most the known races are centered around the galactic core. You, on the other hand, are halfway down one of the spiral arms, surrounded by worlds ashed in the Progenitor's times."

"So you're here only because you need allies and we're the closest unaligned race?" Membrane asked.

"Unfortunately, that does seem to be the case." Visse sipped at his black coffee, while Professor Membrane rubbed his forehead.

"All right, we'll talk with the world leaders. But what about Dib's little green friend?"

Visse looked thoughtful. "Leave Zim to me."

Tak watched them walk off, debating the philosophy of the war.

"Should we be worried?" Dib asked her.

Neither Gaz or Tak deigned to answer him.

* * *

Gir laughed at the Angry Monkey Show. It was his favorite. At least, it was at that particular moment.

"GIR!" Zim snapped over the house's communications system. "I'm working on a new robotic weasel prototype! Keep intruders from bothering me!"

"Yes, my master!" Gir said, slipping into obedience mode briefly, before returning to his happy-go-lucky self.

The door, of course opened, and Visse strode in.

"Hey. Know where Zim is at?"

"HALT! INTRUDER!" Gir snapped, leaping up and deploying his weapons. Visse looked utterly non-plussed. Although, for the six-foot Irken, there wasn't much that did impress him.

"Cute. Look, you know where Zim is or not?" Visse asked, his voice taking a slight edge.

"I _am_ cute! Zim's in the lab! Lemme show you!" Gir guided him to the nearest elevator (Under the coffee table) and down they went.

Gir grinned happily, and Visse couldn't help but let a wry grin creep onto his own features.

"You're not a regular SIR, are you?" he asked the small robot as the mechanical underbelly of the base passed them by.

"I'm not a SIR, I'm GIR!"

"Huh. What's the 'G' stand for?" Visse looked down at Gir.

"I...don't...know..." There was the sounds of circuits fusing, and Visse decided against any further conversation. He didn't want the little guy to explode. He was just getting fond of him.

The door to the elevator opened and they stepped out into a small lab. "Hi, Master! I brought a visitor for you!"

Zim's head snapped up in irritation. "Gir, I _thought_ I told you that I-Whaaa?"

Visse waited for his younger brother to get through his melodramatic actions. "Finished?" he asked after a moment of Zim's stuttering.

"Yeah, I'm through. But, who're you?" the small Irken asked, and Visse grinned.

"My name, if you must know, is Visse. Former Solider Commandant Elite of the Irken Empire, now Emissary of the Resisty, by order of its Supreme Commander, Black." Visse leaned against a console.

"A renegade? Here? IN MY BASE?" Zim looked as though his squeedly-spooch was about to suffer massive failure.

"So, would now be a bad time to mention that I'm your brother?" Visse asked politely, and Zim passed out. "I guess not."

* * *

Zim's eyes opened to dimmed lighting, and the sight of the intruder who claimed to be his brother. "You...how...? I was-"

"Born in a birthing tube, just like me. Just like Black." Visse straightened up. "Except that you, and Black, and I all share the same gene donors."

"Our parents...Do you know who they were?" Zim inquired, sitting up.

"No. Not even Black knows. Only the Tallest ever had access to the Birthing Records, and most of those were lost when you blacked out the planet." Visse fiddled with the holo-transceiver.

"You've mentioned this...Black before. You say he's the Resisty's Supreme Commander?" Zim asked, taking a chair.

"I did, yes."

"The Black I remember was the chancellor to Miyuki and Spork, and died in an aircar accident." Zim looked at the controls. "What're you- NO! I will never allow contact with the Resisty from MY base!"

"Tak was right. You are delusional." Visse snorted, slapping Zim's hands away.

"Tak?" The word left Zim's mouth a growl. "You've spoken to her?"

"Yeah. Had to put her in a human body. She made a pretty stupid jump, tried to use her weapons as an airbrake."

Zim's antennae twitched. "That's...really stupid."

"Yeah." Visse looked at him. "Even if you did maintain loyalty to the Tallest, they're coming here. They're coming to destroy Earth. And, let's face it, they've not exactly been honest with the Empire."

"So?" Zim asked, slightly annoyed.

"Okay, that's not gonna work. Lemme try something else. Where do you feel more at home at? Here? Or Irk?"

Zim opened his mouth to respond, to state that Irk was his home, but went quiet as he truly thought about it. "Here."

"Then protect it." Visse snapped, finally getting the communications line up and running. "That's funny...Black said he'd be operating further coreward than that..."

Zim blinked at the map showing where the "Receipt of Signal" transmission was coming from, then turned as the holographic image showed up.

"Creator in his domain..." Visse leaped to his feet, ignoring the pipe his head slammed into. "Black, what happened?"

The command chair turned. Black's cowl was torn, revealing the metal plating that hid his jaw and mouth. "The Tallest happened. We didn't give them enough credit."

"What do you mean?" Zim asked.

"Is that...Zim? The youngest of us?" Black asked, squinting.

"Yeah, what's wrong? Can't you see me?" Zim said, standing up on his chair.

"Reception problems," Black said. "Audio's fine, but the visual's cutting out. Distorted, at best."

Visse blinked. "What in the void's name happened?"

Black's visible features took on a wince. "They were waiting for us. Whole Armada. We went in expecting a lightly armed supply convoy. Instead we got..got..."

"Humans call it being 'mousetrapped'." Visse commented. "How bad?"

Black's features twitched again, and the signal decayed slightly, static gnawing at the image. "Two destroyers and a cruiser. Had to scuttle one of the com/cons, but the rest of the fleet made it out. Been fighting a running battle to get out of the core."

Zim chewed nervously at a knuckle. "Any, ah, other news we ought to know?"

Black laughed grimly. "Yes. We've packed every ship we could fill. We even collapsed some of the shipyards and brought those along. We're coming to Earth."

Visse's jaw dropped. "What? How long until the Tallest get here? What if they arrive before you?"

Black laughed again, a short, sharp, mechanical cackle. "That is the one bright spot in this mess. We were able to confirm that they've not been able to reverse-engineer the artificial wormhole technology."

"So they still have to use warpholes to get around?" Zim inquired. "Not like it's much slower."

"It is, brother dearest," Black said patiently, "If you collapse the warpholes."

"Sealing the route behind you," Visse said, understanding. "You've burned every bridge leading into Imperial Space, haven't you?"

"Indeed. They'll have to use the Massive to open them up again. It's the only ship with a big enough energy weapon to cause the necessary surge." Black stared at his brothers.

"Listen, you two. The Resisty is headed for Earth. It's your job to make sure humanity is ready for us when we arrive."


End file.
